How do you keep occupied during a run?

[ScottishBoy]

Doing a run can take a long time and since you dont want to leave your rig unattended, what do you do to stay entertained?

I have "helpers"...

This is one of a set of litter mates...They love playing in the water from the condenser. They also love the stove...too much.

So I keep this around...

Usually time in the kitchen with a run involves a half hearted attempt at cleaning, fussing with the shelves and cooking the next meal for my family...If I DO get the chance, a little light reading is in order. You can never be too prepared.

When my daughters ask me what Im doing I tell them "I'm preparing for the inevitable Zombie Apocalypse".

So what do you folks do?

SB

[Barney Fife]

I do my stillin' in the workshop, so I just do some simple work that doesn't require too much of my attention during slower runs(spirit runs or all whiskeys), which could make me forget to tend the still. I'm never more than 16 feet away from it, and it's in the open, where I can see it at all times. If I'm making a strip run at 4500 watts, I just grab my fiddle and stay right there, as the jars fill very quickly, and I only have time for a tune in between jars anyhow. Reading would be the last thing I'd want to do, as any book can captivate yuo and make you forget to look up.

Always have your collection jar sitting in a larger vessel, in case(not if, but when) you forget and the jar overflows a bit.

[kazanas]

I have one or two friends, testing previous runs, and prepairing the next washes

[Coyote]

Play with the dogs, work on small projects, draw pictures of new still idea's

Keep looking out the door Never know when the county sheriff will stop by

[LWTCS]

I just grab my fiddle and stay right there,

Banjo for me I'm a frailer Barney.
Everything in D or C model. All fiddle tunes. Don't know nuttin in G.

[still_in]

i do some reading but its hard to find the right kind of distilling book - cant be too heavy. i was trying to read philosophy book the other day that was difficult. so last night i was reading my wife's copy of "In Style" haha!

# 1 on my wish list is a laptop so i can do other work that i have to do anyway at the same time as distill. double productive.

another fav pastime is board games with the wife and friends

[rad14701]

I usually sit at the laptop, hanging out here in the forums, with one eye on the collection jar... But I still spend more time playing mother hen than anything... Once I get a bigger rig setup then maybe I won't be in the mad science lab mode quite as much of the time...

[goose eye]

wont mint to be

so im tole

[Boozehound]

I prepare the next wash and fiddle with the wine-making side of things. There's always stuff to be racked, demijohns to be cleaned, sterilised, etc. I use the hot water from the condenser to do all the washing up I've left for this purpose.

Once that's done I normally start to come up with hair-brained recipes for wine or spirits. That's when I came up with that idea for a tea spirit (out of interest, it was awful). Once the run is done I'll have started fermenting anything I can think of. Half an hour later I'll be aware of what a s**t idea making a wine out of dishwater and custard was. Never mind - it's only sugar.

[ozone39]

I call my buddies over for a garage still'n party. Set up a table in the garage and drink beer, play some cribbage, dice, poker or what ever dealers choice is and hang out with the tunes (either Pandora radio or Sirius) blasting over the speakers. Time goes by pretty quick..

[kiwistiller]

Pandora! They blocked NZ from accessing it due to licensing I miss it.

[ozone39]

what is NZ, was just jamm'n to pandora last night.....

[kiwistiller]

New Zealand.

[ozone39]

That's no good, at least you can distill legally w/o having to worry about the man paying you a visit. I would probably sacrifice pandora for that.. .

[UnclePaul]

I have been laughed at, sitting at my laptop on the back porch doing house plans.
Hey, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.